Taking another positive step for the facilitation of business community, the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) has set up a Facilitation Desk of Federal Tax Ombudsman in its premises, which was formally inaugurated by Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera, Federal Tax Ombudsman during a ceremony held at ICCI. Mrs. Sarwat Tahira Habib Secretary FTO Secretariat, Mian Akram Farid Chairman Founder Group, Saif ur Rehman Khan Vice President ICCI, Zubair Ahmed Malik, Ch. Waheed ud Din, Mian Shaukat Masud, Khalid Iqbal Malik, Naeem Siddiqui, Malik Sohail Hussain, Mian Ramzan and others were also present at the occasion. With the establishment of FTO Facilitation Desk, the aggrieved members of ICCI would now be able to lodge complaints on any tax issue against the functionaries administering the federal taxes and get their grievances resolved through this facility.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony, Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera, Federal Tax Ombudsman said that protecting the interests of taxpayers was the key priority of his organization and FTO was providing relief to taxpayers by carrying out independent investigations about the maladministration by functionaries administering the federal taxes. He said FTO would work with FBR for setting timelines for tax cases to ensure their timely disposal. He said criminal cases should be filed against those tax functionaries who were involved in malpractices and corruption. He said ensuring the self-respect of taxpayers was the responsibility of the state and state should honor this responsibility. He said that SMEs were the backbone of economy and they needed more focus of the government for ease of doing business. He said that a fair, just, efficient and simplified tax system was needed to promote tax culture in the country. He appreciated the efforts of ICCI for providing better facilities to its members by setting up facilitation desks of various organizations that would help in resolving their key issues and promoting business activities.

Speaking at the occasion, Muhammad Ahmed Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said ICCI was striving to provide maximum facilitation to its members in business promotion and the establishment of FTO Facilitation Desk at Chamber was another right step in that direction. He said that ICCI would also setup the Facilitation Desks of CDA, NADRA, SMEDA and Passport Office to provide more facilitation to its members. Mian Akram Farid Chairman Frounder Group He thanked Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera, Federal Tax Ombudsman for his cooperation in setting up FTO Facilitation Desk at ICCI and hoped that it would be instrumental in resolving key tax issues of business community.

ICCI members at the occasion highlighted many tax issues including repeated selection of same taxpayers for audit, issue of Sec-8B, long delay in clearance of refunds and emphasized that FTO should work with FBR in resolving the highlighted issues.